Words
by Hermione Is My Role Model
Summary: Thirteen words for thirteen districts - thirteen words about Annie Cresta-Odair. Spoilers for Mockingjay.


**Shampoo**

Her hair always smelled like strawberry shampoo. She carried the delicate scent everywhere she went. It was so different to the reeking, pungent, overwhelming perfumes the Capitol women loved so much. To smell it was a relief when he came home from his almost weekly trips to the Capitol. And it was so Annie; innocent, soft and sweet. It suited her. When she was held captive in the Capitol, he closed his eyes and summoned up that soothing fragrance, and it seemed she was there with him, in his arms.

**Socks**

Annie wore mismatched socks twice in the time Finnick knew her. The first time was on a Saturday before the 73rd Hunger Games. He remembers that one of the socks was pink with a frill, and the other had red-and-white polka dots. He remembers they were curled up on the couch together, watching some old movie. And the night before the reaping for the third Quarter Quell, Annie went to bed with mismatched socks. One was green, patterned with white stars. The other was slightly longer and had orange and blue stripes. The orange and blue sock was one of his.

**Lipstick**

Annie almost never wore lipstick. In fact, she rarely wore make-up at all. Finnick liked it that way. She didn't need to paint her face in order to look pretty. But on her wedding day, she wore pink lipstick and a hint of eyeshadow and mascara. It was their special day; she wanted to make an effort. Secretly, Finnick wouldn't have minded if she'd turned up with bed hair, dressed in a trash bag. She always looked gorgeous.

**Hovercraft**

Annie hated hovercrafts. They reminded her of the Games and the arena. She connected them with fear and danger. The first time she was on one, she was a tribute, about to be dropped in the arena. The second time, she was a victor, being carried out of the arena. The third time, she had been captured by the Capitol after the third Quarter Quell. On the first three rides she was terrified and desperate, and Finnick was on her mind, and she wanted nothing more than to be with him. The fourth ride, she was unconscious, knocked out by gas, and had been rescued from her prison in the Capitol. On the fifth ride, she wasn't afraid. She was excited and happy because she was going to District Twelve to pick her wedding dress, and the sixth ride was when she returned to District Thirteen and Finnick was there waiting for her. On the seventh ride, she was going home – glad to be going home, but sad that Finnick was not there.

**Bead**

She had a bead necklace that she wore almost all the time. She had a bead for every person that meant something to her. The red and orange beads were for her parents. The yellow bead was for her district partner and best friend, who had died in her Games. The green bead was for Finnick. The blue bead was for Mags. The indigo bead was for her sister. And, when her son was born, she added a violet bead for him.

**Rain**

Like Johanna, Annie had been temporarily afraid of rain when she came out of the arena. She had once loved the sea, but after her experiences in the arena she shuddered to look at it. She could barely take a bath without having flashbacks and thinking she was back in the arena. So he bought her an umbrella to keep the rain off her. But one day he was coming back from the Capitol in the pouring rain, and there she stood in the street, in front of the house, her umbrella discarded on the porch and a huge, proud grin on her face. And soon she was swimming again.

**Piano**

She taught Finnick how to play the piano, starting the year before her Games. She had been taught by her mother. She taught him simple tunes, like "Frère Jacques," which apparently meant "Brother Jack" in an old language called French. Sometimes he would just sit there and listen to the beautiful melodies she created as her slender fingers danced along the keyboard. When she returned home after Finnick died, she sat down at the piano and played "Für Elise," imagining that she was there with him.

**Moon**

She loved to see the moon. She could stay up all night watching it. She loved the way it reflected on the sea when the sea was calm and still. She especially loved when it was a full moon, unobscured by clouds, hanging serenely in a clear dark sky. Sometimes, when Finnick had to go away, she would talk to the moon. If others knew, they'd say she was crazy. But to her, Finnick was there, talking back to her from the moon. She also did this after his death.

**Memory**

Similar to Katniss's Memory Book, Annie had a large book filled with photographs of her, Mags and Finnick, and handwritten accounts of events that had occurred on various days, compiled by the three of them. There were flowers pressed between pages; drawings of things they'd done and seen; odd little bits and pieces like blue ribbon and a bit of wool and a handprint in yellow paint. Annie kept it in pride of place on her mantelpiece after the rebellion, and added her own pictures and stories and adventures as her son was growing up.

**Pebble**

Finnick found her a perfect pebble. It was a smooth round shape, white speckled with grey. She held it in her hand and it grew warm from her touch. One day she painted it, making tiny green-and-blue waves with white tips, and little black seagulls swooping close to the water. Finnick often took it with him to the Capitol, so that he could take it out and look at it, and it would remind him of home and Annie.

**Dog**

Annie had always wanted a dog, ever since she was a little girl. On her birthday, the year after she was crowned victor, Finnick bought her a dog – a beagle that she named Toby. She adored him almost as much as she adored Finnick. He had quite a few pages to himself in her memory book. She was distraught when she came home from District Thirteen to learn that he had been shot trying to protect her when the Capitol people took her away.

**Net**

She kept the grass net that had been woven and draped over their shoulders at their wedding. It lay, folded neatly, in a box that also contained the pebble she had painted for Finnick, the two necklaces she made for him so he could carry a piece of her with him when he went away, an unfinished knitted scarf she and Mags had been making, a bundle of letters and poems Finnick had written for her, and a pearl he had given her for her last birthday.

**Star**

Finnick once told her – sang to her – a rhyme his mother had taught him. _"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. Never let it fade away. Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. Save it for a rainy day." _ She repeated these words to herself as a prisoner in the Capitol, and one day she sang the words to her son Caspian, who would one day pass it on to his children, who would pass it on to their children and so forth.


End file.
